Milk-ticket



l(N0 Model.) A

J. MILNES.

` MILK TICKET. No. 553,251. Patented Jan. 21, 1896.

Qmynmmy wat @@f'@ N fe@ m UNITED STATES` PATENT OEEICE.

JOHN C. MILNES, OF CEDAR RAPIDS, IOIVA.

MILK-T ICKET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 553,251 dated January21, 1896.

Application filed April 16, 1894.

T0 all whom it may concer/o:

Be it known that I, JOHN C, MILNEs, a citizen of the United States,residing at Cedar Rapids, in the county of Linn and State of Iowa, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Milk Tickets; and I dohereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionof the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to whichit appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to tickets such as are issued to the purchasersof commodities for future delivery, and as herein illustrated isspecially adapted to the use of dairymen in the deliveryT of milk totheir customers.

The object of the invention is to simplify the keeping of accounts, andguard against losses through the carelessness or dishonestyT of employsor customers, as well as to protect such customers against imposition ormistake on the part of the person or persons so furnishing suchcommodity. The particular means whereby this object is attained areembodied in a ticket of peculiar construction, which will be hereinafterdescribed and claimed, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings,- in which- Figure l is a front or face view of a ticketembodying my invention and its connected stub. Fig. 2 is a view of theback thereof. Fig. 3 is a collective view of the various checkdisks,front and back, punched from the ticket in use.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

` In the business of furnishing such commodities as milk, bread,coal-oil, or the like it is difcult and troublesome to keep an exactaccount of what is delivered, the particular persons to whom delivered,the credit and cash items, eine., and it is practically impossible toguard against the carelessness or dishonesty of the person or personsmaking the deliveries. Ihe common method is to sell the patron a numberof tickets for cash or on credit, as the case may be. As this isgenerally done by the employ who delivers the commodity, the employer isdependent almost entirely upon his carefulness and honesty as to thefact of the price having been paid for the tickets or credit extended,and this uncertainty often leads to disputes between the of perforationsCZ.

Serial No. 507,649. (No model.)

dealer and his customers and to losses through surreptitious pilfering.Neither has the dealer any certain way of determining to what customershis commodityhas been delivered, since there is nothing about thetickets to indicate from whom they are returned, and the report of thedelivery-man is the only authority the dealer has for making anydailyentry as to his respective customers. It is thus possible forthedelivery-man to cheat or mislead both in selling and delivering, withall the incident-al trouble and loss accompanying thoughtless orunscrupulous service. It is the purpose of this invention to guardagainst all this annoyance by providing a ticket which acts as acomplete check in all transactions as between the dealer, thedelivery-man and the customer.

Referring now to the drawings, A designates the ticket-stub, on whichare printed the name or other business title of the dealer, the value ofthe ticket7 with suitable blanks for the name and address of thecustomer, his particalar number, and the date of sale. This is separatedfrom the ticket C by a line The tickets and stubs are preferably, thoughnot necessarily, bound in suitable books for convenience.

The ticket embraces three general divisionsw-a cash receipt B, asuitable name and address blank C, and a series of deliverycoupons C C"C Cm. The first named is preferably placed next to the breaking-line atthe head of the ticket. It is provided with marginal number andcash-spots b b 19 I), corresponding to those in the stub above. Thesemay be of any desired coniguration, circles being herein shown by way ofillustration. Each circle contains the number of the ticket, which isthe customers registered number, and a given sum--twenty-five cents, forexample. There maybe as many or few of these spots as desired, but thenumber of them should correspond with the number of cashspots on the'stub and the number of coupons on the ticket. For the sake ofillustration herein a one-dollar ticket is shown, divided into fourparts of twenty-ve cents each. The receipt-blank should also have asuitable space for one or more signatures of the delivery-man or personwho receives the cash.

The name and address space C contains for IOO identification the name orstyle of the dealer,`

with the customers name and address written therein. 4

Below the naine-blank are coupons C' C" 0" 0, separated by break-lines dd d". These coupons each represent an amount of the commodity equal invalue to that indicated by each of the cash spots or checks. Thus, in amilk-ticket, each coupon calls for iive quarts of milk, supposing milkto be retailed at i'ive cents per quart. Each coupon may have thisdescriptive matter printed upon it for the sake of clearness, though sosoon as the ticket and system are understood this is not absolutelynecessary. The coupons should, however, be divided into spacesrepresentative of the integral parts ot' the whole coupon. In the caseof a milk-ticket this would be spaces representing1 a pint of milk each,orten of these spaces c c' to each ticket. It is desirable, also, toavoid unnecessary labor, that the coupons be divided into quartspaces cc. These may be designated by marginal words or abbreviations, asindicated, though their value is otherwise determinable, as will behereinafter explained. Each one of these spaces should contain thecustomers number or other symbol or character whereby he is designated,for the double purpose of enabling` the dealer to check off at any timethe amount of milk already delivered to him, and to prevent thedelivery-man from substituting spurious checks for those in the coupons.In practice the quarts and pints are represented as shown, the quarts byfull circles, the pints by partial-intersecting circles, the printedoutline of the pintchecks being a crescent. These are arranged in groupsof one quart and two pints each, as shown. y

The practical operation of the ticket is as follows: The delivery-man issupposed to sell the ticket, this being usually the case in theretailing of milk. In case a dollars worth is sold and credit given, hesimply tears off the ticket at the line d, writes the purchasers nameand address in the stub, the same on the ticket, hands the purchaser theticket and returns the stub to the dealer. The uncanceled stub indicatesthe exact transaction to the dealer and the ticket shows on its face tothe purchaser that no money passed. In case the price of the ticket ispaid, the delivery-man or dealer cancels, as by crossing out with hispencil, the cash-spots a a a a in the stub, and with a suitable punchadaptedV to n preserve the disk or check punches out the cash-spots b bb b in the ticket and signs the same by initials or otherwise. In caseof a partial payment one or more of the cash-spots in the ticket arepunched out, as the case may be, and a corresponding number -of thecash-spots in the stub are canceled.

In'the event of a partial or fractional ticket being sold, the sellertears oif from the ticket coupons to the value of the unsold portion,

punching out a corresponding number of cash-spots in the ticket andcorrespondingly cancelling the stub. lf cash is paid for such fractionalticket all the cash-spots in the ticket are punched, of course. lfcredit is given, the uncanceled part of the ticket and stub indicate toboth purchaser and seller the exact condition of the account.

In the delivery of milk the delivery-man for each quart punches out afull circle in the coupon; for each pint, a crescent. In the firstinstance the circular punch overlaps the pinttickets and cancels them.In the second in- -stance the same punch overlaps the quartticket andcancels it, but does not cancel the pint ticket or check on the oppositeside of the quart-check. At the next delivery, or at some subsequentdelivery, when a pint is wanted, this remaining check is punched out.

As I intend to make the punch the subject of another application forpatent I have deemed it advisable not to illustrate it herein. In orderto a full understanding of this invention, however, it may be said thatthe punch should have a receptacle to catch the checks as punched fromthe ticket, which receptacle is to be suitably locked or sealed by theemployer, so as to prevent any tampering with the contents by theemploy.

The face of the checks being all suitably marked there is littledifficulty in sorting them as turned in by the delivery-man whenproperly faced7 As this would take some time it is desirable that thebacks of the checks should have a distinguishing-mark, so that they maybe sorted without facing.7 A simple device for this purpose is shown inFigs. 2 and 3. Opposite the cash-spots l) l) Z9 b, on the back side, theticket is printed in solid color, or the like, E E, to distinguish itssurface from that of the body of the ticket.

Across the middle of the coupons on the back are printed broad lines F FF F, which leave corresponding Zones across the backs of thequart-checks, as shown in Fig. 3. Thus the pint-checks will be white, orthe color of the ticket-paper, the quart-checks banded, and thecash-checks solid color on the back, making it very easy to sort them.Itis to be understood that this method of distinguishing the checks onthe back is but illustrative, since the principle admits of unlimitedmodiication.

It is to be understood that it is not necessary for the delivery-man tocancel anything in the stub, though he may conveniently do so in somecases. The checks and coupons returned by him indicate to the proprietorthe conditions of the transaction, and he may cancel the stub tocorrespond with this data.

The signing of the receipt at the head of the ticket might be dispensedwith, since the punching of it has the same effect, but this feature isdesirable, as it identiiies the person who received the cash in eachcase.

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To encourage the payment of cash for tickets as sold I provide for theredemption at a designated bank of unused remainders, as shown in Fig.2.

It is contemplated that the tickets shall be printed in series, thenumbers running from one to as high a number as the business may demand.Instead of numbers, letters or cabalistic signs may be used to designatethe particular purchasers, though numerals are preferred in practice.

Having thus described my invention, I claiml. A ticket to facilitate thekeeping of accounts and the transaction of business, comprising-a stubto receive the name and address of the customer, and having a marginalcharacter, and having a series of value spots, a cash receipt having aname and address blank and separated from the stub by a break line, andhaving a series of value spots each having a character similar to theaforesaid marginal character a-nd corresponding in number With thenumber of value spots on the stub, and a series of coupons separatedfrom each other by break lines, the number and the value of the couponscorresponding With the number and the value of the said value spots onthe stub and the cash receipt, said coupons being subdivided into unitspaces of predetermined value, and said unit spaces being furthersubdivided by outlined spaces, representing different values, the

greater value being in full outline and the lesser in partial outlineand intersecting with and overlapped by the greater, and each outlinedspace bearing a character corresponding With the marginal character ofthe stub and the value spaces of the said cash receipt, substantially asset forth.

2. A ticket for the purposes specified, comprising a stub to receive thename and address of the customer, and having a marginal character, andhaving a series of value spots, a cash receipt having a name and addressblank and separated from the stub by a break line, and having a seriesof value spots each bearing a character similar to the marginalcharacter aforesaid and corresponding in number with the number of valuespots on the stub, a series of coupons separated from each other bybreak lines and corresponding in number and value With the number andthe value of the said value spots on the stub and the cash receipt, saidcoupons being subdivided into unit spaces of predetermined value, andsaid unit spaces being further subdivided by outlined spacesrepresenting different values, the greater value being in full outlineand the lesser in partial outline and intersectingwith and overlapped bythe greater, and each outlined space bearing a character similar to themarginal character of the stub and the value spaces of the said cashreceipt, and said ticket having on its reverse side or back identifyingmatter opposite the value spots of the cash receipt and the fulloutlined spaces of the coupons, the identifying matter of the couponsbeing different from that of the cash receipt, whereby the said spacesWhen punched from the body of the ticket can be quickly assorted andassembled either side up, substantially as specified.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

JOHN C. MILNES.

Witnesses B. M. SUNDE, L. M. MARTINEK.

